Edit:
I'm simply blown away with you goats. I was expecting a somber farewell in this thread but instead you've done the exact opposite; pulled off a rally at the bottom of the 9th. On a personal note, and this may seem sentimental, but you have given me a new hope for Voat at very dark time for me.
All I can say now is: Let's do this! I think your message is clear. We have a ton of work to do, a short window in which to do it, and I fully understand I can't do it alone. We will need all hands on deck if Voat is to have any chance at survival.
I will post the plans I have for Voat as well as a status update on your contributions by Monday.
P.S. Old goats, be nice to the new kids. ;)
Original Post
As I sit here about to write one of the most difficult announcements yet, I was just reminded that my account is one month shy of three years old. Nearly three years ago I came here from Reddit when the vote counts disappeared and I felt I could no longer trust what I saw. Nearly three years ago I met @Atko and started contributing code because I believed in him, his mission, and what he was doing. So much has happened during these last three years.
I know a lot of you are new, but Voat has been through a wild ride, and never at any point was it an easy one. My memories are bittersweet when it comes to Voat. I’ve sacrificed the best years of my life for Voat, I’ve lost my business partner whom I miss a lot, I’ve lost people in my life, I’ve given up golf which was my passion, and even with all this I still believe in Voat. I still see the dire need for Free Speech in this world, I fear a world without it, and I still will do anything I can to continue providing it.
But alas, I am powerless to keep Voat running without financial support. As of right now Voat has no solid commitments. Voat has always needed a financial partner whom had balls of steel and backing deep enough to give Voat the capabilities to run as an actual business (being able to hire staff and set itself apart from its competitors), not just a one man show. Potential investors have one or the other of these traits, but we have yet to find one with both. In this day and age, this is Voat’s unicorn.
In the past Voat has been lucky enough to be part of special programs designed for startup companies which gave us free licensing on various products and significantly reduced hosting costs. These programs have since expired and we are now paying full costs. Last month was our first non-discounted month on Azure and the usage was $6,600.90 USD. Donations, ads, and merchandise only put a dent in this and this is the primary reason why we have not launched another merchandise run. And begging for donations was always something we hated doing.
I’m writing this announcement to prepare this community, and the Voat family, for the possibility of a closure. I’m not certain on timing and I have too much invested in this place to give up just yet, so I cannot provide any timelines. In the meantime, I will soon be scaling back all Voat’s servers by at least 50%. I will also turn off some features that are resource intensive.
Voat needs funding. Without it, Voat will be no more.
Voat needs an Angel
Canary
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
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allogonist ago
I would pay real money to use a version of Voat where the accounts posting are verified, vetted, and 100% guaranteed to be real humans who only own a single account. If I could have discussions about any bullshit I wanted in an environment where I knew the discussions, ideas, votes, comments, and moderation, was done by humans not trying to manipulate me as part of some political agenda I would pay $10 a month for that service. Hell, I would even put up with sponsored manipulation if the website showed me how much money was being spent to change my perspective on things.
I don't know if such a system is even possible to build.
Right now, the open nature of Voat makes it not much better than Reddit. We have tons of shill accounts here screwing with us all the time. Frankly many of the legitimate discussions on this website have been discredited by shill accounts pretending to be racist etc. The one saving grace of Voat is that the site owners don't seem to be actively censoring certain discussions or directly modifying user content via database manipulation as they are on Reddit. A fact that's likely to change if you find the wrong source of income.
I am tired of being manipulated on social media. Offer me a product that's worth money and you will have my money.
9142459? ago
A subscription service low enough for a single user but too high to be purchased by botters without serious capital. It could work and it could also be utter shit. There's a line between having borders and having walls.
allogonist ago
Yeah, how do we solve the biggest problem of modern social engineering...I don't claim to have the answer.
However, letting everyone be 100% anonymous, and then voting on ideas with imaginary points is like the best system ever from the perspective of someone with a trillion dollars and an agenda to manipulate people.
I mean, you can't read reddit or voat and honestly say "this is how people actually think" because so many of the accounts are on there trying to change your perception of one group or another. Don't like a political movement? pay 100 shill accounts to join their movement and slowly turn the movement into an anti-Semitic movement so that 99% of viewers on the internet will dismiss their ideas as racist without even considering them.
It's crazy fucking easy to do, and millions of dollars are being spent on it every month anonymously.
Freedom from THAT would be worth $10 a month to me. Right now, Voat is full of that, so I don't know if donating is really worth it to me.
9144841? ago
I agree with you and I think a paywall would honestly be better than what we've had so far. I just know they'll stop at nothing to have control. I'd subscribe.
Don't let me discourage you. I think a subscription service to voat would be great or any other information sharing platform. I'll spread the word too.